Staxly

Claude Code vs Cursor

Anthropic's terminal-native coding agent — built for deep codebase work
vs. AI-native code editor — VS Code fork with deep AI integration

Claude Code ↗Cursor website ↗

Pricing tiers

Claude Code

API (pay-per-token)
Pay-per-token via Anthropic API. Sonnet: $3/$15 per 1M in/out. Opus: $15/$75. Best for heavy/team use.
$0 base (usage-based)
Claude Pro
$20/mo. Includes limited Claude Code usage via subscription (Sonnet). Heaviest users will hit caps.
$20/mo
Claude Team
$30/user/mo. Shared workspace, admin controls, priority support.
$30/mo
Claude Max
$200/mo. Higher Claude Code quotas + priority access to Opus.
$200/mo
Enterprise
Custom. SSO, audit logs, SOC 2, dedicated support, HIPAA-eligible.
Custom
Claude Code ↗

Cursor

Hobby (Free)
Free. Limited Agent requests + Tab completions. No credit card.
Free
Pro
$20/month. Extended Agent limits, frontier models, MCPs + skills + hooks, cloud agents.
$20/mo
Teams
$40/user/month. Shared chats + commands + rules, centralized billing, RBAC, SAML/OIDC SSO.
$40/mo
Pro+ (Recommended)
$60/month. Everything in Pro + 3x usage on OpenAI, Claude, Gemini.
$60/mo
Ultra
$200/month. 20x usage multiplier + priority access to new features.
$200/mo
Enterprise
Custom. Pooled usage, SCIM, AI code tracking API + audit logs, priority support.
Custom
Cursor website ↗

Free-tier quotas head-to-head

Comparing api-pay-per-use on Claude Code vs hobby on Cursor.

MetricClaude CodeCursor
No overlapping quota metrics for these tiers.

Features

Claude Code · 16 features

  • Background Tasks — Long-running processes.
  • Claude Agent SDK — Build custom agents on same primitives.
  • claude CLI — Terminal command.
  • Git Worktrees — Isolated worktree per session.
  • Hooks — Lifecycle shell commands.
  • IDE Extensions — VS Code + JetBrains + Zed.
  • MCP Client — Connect any MCP server.
  • Memory (CLAUDE.md) — Persistent per-project instructions.
  • Native Tools — Bash, Read, Write, Edit, Grep, Glob, WebFetch.
  • Plan Mode — Dry-run — Claude shows plan without executing.
  • Prompt Caching — 90% discount on repeated context.
  • Sandbox Modes — Safe execution of risky commands.
  • Slash Commands — User-defined workflows.
  • Task Tool (subagents) — Spawn parallel Claude subagents.
  • TodoWrite Tool — Internal task tracking.
  • WebSearch + WebFetch — Live internet access.

Cursor · 15 features

  • Agent Mode — Autonomous multi-file editing + tool use. Runs terminal commands with confirmati…
  • Background Agents — Run agents in the cloud to tackle longer tasks async.
  • BugBot (PR reviews) — AI reviewer on GitHub PRs.
  • Chat (⌘L) — Conversational chat with codebase context.
  • Cmd-K Inline Edit — Highlight code + ⌘K → natural language edit instruction.
  • Codebase Indexing — Embedding-based semantic search over your codebase.
  • Composer — Multi-file edit sessions with full context.
  • .cursorrules / Project Rules — Custom system prompts per project to steer the AI.
  • MCP Support — Add Model Context Protocol servers to extend agent capabilities.
  • Privacy Mode — Data never used for training; zero-retention routing.
  • Skills & Hooks — User-defined skills library + lifecycle hooks.
  • Tab (multi-line completion) — Predictive completions including next-edit suggestions.
  • Team Shared Context — Share chats, commands, rules across team.
  • VS Code Extension Compat — Most VS Code extensions work via the marketplace.
  • YOLO Mode — Auto-approve all agent actions (for trusted workflows).

Developer interfaces

KindClaude CodeCursor
CLIclaude CLICursor CLI
SDKClaude Agent SDK—
MCPMCP Client (built-in)Cursor MCP support
OTHERClaude Code Web, GitHub/PR Bridge, Hooks System, JetBrains Plugin, Slash Commands, VS Code ExtensionCursor Desktop App, Cursor Rules (.cursorrules), Privacy Mode
Staxly is an independent catalog of developer platforms. Some links to Claude Code and Cursor may be affiliate links — Staxly may earn a commission if you sign up through them, at no extra cost to you. Pricing is verified against vendor pages at publication time — reconfirm before buying.

Want this comparison in your AI agent's context? Install the free Staxly MCP server.